Douglas Evaluation

criticises himself, while suggesting each suicide is unique he suggests they follow patterns which would not be the case if they were unique

4 of 8

Interpretivism - Atkins

How do we label a death a suicide?

quantitative methods are useles as they are influenced easily

exact numbers of suicides will never be known

'guessing suicides'

Coroners are influenced by;

the suicide note

mode of death

clues to a potetial suicide

life history and mental health

5 of 8

Atkins Evaluation

Problems with a Suicide Note

could have been written by someone else

may not be a suicide note

could have been destroyed

Overall methodological problems

highly subjective

not always this type of evidence available

unreliable

6 of 8

Realists - Taylor

Aims to bring the two approaches together. Agrees that suicide stats are not valid and but neither is interviewing as it is all based on the social construction of suicide. We must instead study both suicides and parasuicides

There is patern and explanation for suicides, aims to find the underlying structures and causes